His age was given as twenty-eight in December 1660. He was born in Haarlem where his father was an art dealer, and the dune landscape of that area influenced his style. He appears to have studied the work of the other Haarlem artists, Wouwermans and the young Ruisdael.

He was recorded in Rotterdam in 1653 and Haarlem in 1657, but in 1660 he seems to have settled in Amsterdam (where Ruisdael was then working). In 1672 he was described as a painter and publican, but his circumstances appear not to have been easy. Adriaen van de Velde, is said to have been his pupil (probably in the early 1650s) and, with J. Lingelbach (1622-74), to have painted figures in his landscapes. A Catholic, he was buried in Amsterdam on 23 January 1684.